Nestled between L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet and the Ontario shore is a collection of islands that not many have been able to step foot on.
There are three big islands – Lafontaine, Green, and French – which together amount to roughly 1,000 acres, and dozens of smaller islands, too many to count. They pack that stretch of the Ottawa River, so densely that when looking at it on a map, it’s not clear the river passes through them.
They are undeveloped and rich in biodiversity, with rough foot paths, internal lakes for swimming, waterfalls and high cliffs overlooking the rapids.
The land on both sides of this stretch of the Ottawa River is private, much of it owned by Ontario rafting company Wilderness Tours, but the islands are crown land, and fall within the boundaries of the Municipality of L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet.
This archipelago, known colloquially as the Rocher Fendu park, is at the centre of an internationally renowned stretch of rapids that for decades has drawn paddlers from around the world keen to run the network of river channels created by these islands.
But unless you’re in a raft or are a skilled whitewater kayaker or canoeist, these islands remain largely inaccessible. They are not connected to the mainland by any bridge, and anybody wishing to reach them by motorboat will be hard pressed to find a public boat launch that would make it possible to access the islands without having to pass through rapids.
Even the paddlers who do spend a lot of time on this stretch of the river don’t often get out of their boats to explore them. But a new trip offering on the Ottawa River is hoping to change that.
Danny Peled and Ty Smith know this stretch of the river intimately. They spent their formative years working as raft guides for Esprit Rafting, taking hundreds of people through this world-class stretch of whitewater. Last year, they joined forces to purchase the rafting portion of Esprit and launched a unique river trip experience under the name Boreal River Expeditions.
Instead of continuing to run day trips, as their predecessor had and the rest of the rafting businesses on the Ottawa do, Peled and Smith have designed a different kind of experience.
Using Esprit’s waterfront property on L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet, they will host small groups, between five and 25 people, for four days of camping, rafting, and exploring across the river’s many channels, including the mysterious islands.
“It’s like real wilderness camping, you know, we use camping equipment, people sleep in tents, there’s no electricity,” Peled said. “Our guides are really experts at helping any participant regardless of the experience, be very comfortable in that environment.”
Since 2008, Peled has been running a whitewater adventure company that takes people on rafting trips down the Mutehekau (Magpie) river in Quebec, and the Pacuare river in Costa Rica. And now, in a collaboration with Smith, he’s adding the Ottawa River to that list.
“It’s definitely a departure from what Esprit did,” Smith said. “Other people aren’t doing it on the river, and that river site is so beautiful and special. It’s one of the few places in the world that you’re close to such big centres, particularly a nation’s capital, that has a multi-day whitewater expedition experience.”
Part of the reason this stretch of rapids is so well known is because in the summer, the water is warm and deep, and the river’s various channels offer different levels of challenges, making it accessible for all skill levels.
“The Ottawa is truly one of the best rivers in the world for this sort of activity. And it’s very restricted in terms of the access for companies. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said of the opportunity to purchase the land from Esprit owner Jim Coffey.
“At any point in the previous 15 years, if Jim had approached us, we would have jumped on it.”
‘There’s a gold mine sitting there’
Peled and Smith are not the first to recognize the tourism and adventure potential of this cluster of islands.
Since Wilderness Tours founder Joe Kowalski first set foot in the region in the 1970s, he’s been dreaming of turning this stretch of the river into a protected park. First, he approached Parks Canada. When that pitch was rejected, he decided to buy much of the land along the shoreline himself.
He bought his first piece of land on L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet in 1982, and in 1989 he made his first of many pitches to Pontiac mayors trying to convince them of his vision of turning the islands into a park.
“It’s nice that it’s preserved, but, you know, I want to share the magic that’s found in our area, and the only way to do it is with wire suspension bridges to be able to get people across the river walking in any kind of weather.”
These suspension bridges are critical to his vision for creating what he calls the Whitewater National Park on this cluster of islands. In his vision, it would be a provincial park, which in Quebec is referred to as “National”.
By building a collection of suspension bridges between the islands, and connecting them to both Quebec and Ontario shores, the islands would become accessible to not only the whitewater community, but also hikers, skiers, snowmobilers, and anybody else who wanted to explore them.
By his estimates, this kind of tourism project could bring in as many as one million visitors a year, through all seasons.
“The two great eras of prosperity for the Pontiac, and actually, for our [Ontario] side of the river as well, was the fur trade, and then the timber trade,” Kowalski said. “But they don’t last because by their nature, they deplete the resource. They trap all the beavers, and they cut down all the trees. Whereas what I’m proposing is renewable. It’s sustainable. [ . . . ]
It’ll be fabulous for both sides of the river. Tourism is sort of the precursor to residential development. [ . . . ] Prosperity is a rising tide that lifts all boats.”
Earlier this spring, Kowalski made this pitch to MRC Pontiac’s newly formed Regional Park Committee, something he said he has done “a zillion million” times since he first moved to the Ottawa Valley.
In 2021, the MRC commissioned several pre-feasibility studies to get a better portrait of the tourism potential of the site, as well as the historic and cultural significance of this stretch of the river, but the project didn’t go beyond that at the time.
Now, Warden Jane Toller says the new committee is once again interested in the proposal, and sees the potential for developing some form of conservation area on the site of the islands, but is in the early days of exploring what exactly this should look like.
“From the moment I saw [Joe’s] first plan, I did not support it, because for me it was turning this fragile area into a Disney World,” Toller said, noting she does not believe allowing snowmobile or four-wheeler access on the islands would fit with the MRC’s vision. “We also think it’s extremely important that we have primary access from the Quebec side,” she said. “We see this as an opportunity for Calumet Island, and so that’s of primary importance. The second thing is protecting but celebrating and allowing people to enjoy the biodiversity.”
Esprit Rafting founder Jim Coffey has echoed Toller’s concern with any park including a bridge to Ontario.
“As soon as there’s a bridge from the islands to Ontario, the Pontiac has lost,” Coffey told THE EQUITY.
Coffey’s vision for the islands involves no bridges, no bathrooms, no garbage cans, just a simple boat service that would shuttle visitors from Calumet Island to the Rocher Fendu islands and back to mainland again, without them leaving a trace.
“In one way this keeps [the islands] natural, which is great. And another way, it means that there’s not millions of dollars of infrastructure that needs to be built on those islands,” he said. “You know, there’s a gold mine sitting there, but it takes some creativity and belief in the natural area that’s there. I can tell you, it’s spectacular.”
For now, Peled and Smith are the only river company intentionally finding ways to get their guests out onto these islands, and it’s exactly Coffey’s philosophy of ‘leave no trace’ that they plan to emulate.
“Conservation of the river is kind of our core goal,” Peled said.
He said he and Smith are supportive of the idea of some form of conservation on the islands.
“Ideally, there probably would be some sort of management in a way that allowed public access, you know, free access, and so that’s something we want to support.”
